


Never talk to me or my son, or my son, or my son, or my son, or my daughter ever again!

by arfrid



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Animals, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Animals getting hurt, Gen, The kids are animals, a bit of violence, guess who they are - Freeform, spoilers: steve adopts 4 cats
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-08
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:41:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27957062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arfrid/pseuds/arfrid
Summary: Steve is down after he realizes Jonathan has two kittens, but when he hears a mew, it changes his life. In a good way.
Relationships: Steve Harrington & Dustin Henderson, Steve Harrington & Lucas Sinclair, Steve Harrington & Maxine "Max" Mayfield, Steve Harrington & Mike Wheeler, Steve Harrington & The Party
Comments: 3
Kudos: 19





	Never talk to me or my son, or my son, or my son, or my son, or my daughter ever again!

Steve whistled, a sad feeling still in his gut. He had visited Jonathan, Nancy’s _new_ boyfriend, and found out that he had two new kittens. They were so sweet and gentle, and they were found at a 7-11 originally so Jonathan jokingly called one of the kittens named Jane ‘Eleven’ and it stuck as ‘El’, and dammit, Steve was jealous.

He was walking back to his house, not bothering to call a cab or anything, and that was when he heard it.

A mew.

Steve looked around; he was alone. There was no-one nearby, person or animal anywise.

_Mew._

Okay, that came from an alley.

He walked towards the alley where the sound came from, and heard it again.

_Mew!_

He ran towards the sound and found a little scruffy dirty brown kitten.

“Aw! Look at you, little buddy!” He said, his heart melting. But the kit looked frightened, scared. She- He- It looked up at him, gave an urgent mew and ran further into the alley.

_Rude,_ Steve thought sadly. He was about to walk away when the kit gave another urgent mew, urging him forwards.

Okay, now Steve was genuinely curious. What was going on?

And so he followed the brown kitten towards wherever.

It took about 3 minutes to get there, and what he saw stunned him.

There were several scarred up kittens, around the same age and size as the brown kitten from before, and a bright red one was hissing at a large blonde dog. One of the kittens was injured badly, a dark brown one, and the other kitten was mewing concernedly at him.

“Hey, hey!” Steve yelled, clapping his hands. Everyone’s attention snapped to him, even the injured kit. “Get out of here, dog!”

The dog growled at him, then at the red one, and launched itself towards the kit. Steve quickly ran forwards and grabbed the large dog, dragging him backwards. The dog growled and barked and bit him, but Steve was persistent. He threw the dog out of the alley. The dog gave him an evil look before scampering, probably to find his owner (if he had one).

Steve ran back towards the kits, scooping up the red one and dark brown injured one. A black and white one hissed at him, but the brown kit nuzzled against Steve’s leg.

“Come on, let’s go get to a vet.”

Luckily, there was a vet nearby.

She checked them over and informed Steve that the two cats had deep scratches that had been treated, then checked the other two kits over.

“So you’re just dusty, aren’t you?” asked Steve at the red one. “Dusty… What do you think about the name Dustin?”

The kitten didn’t respond. It took a second for Steve to realize Dustin was asleep in his lap.

He smiled and pet Dustin affectionately between the ears.

The other three cats got out of care soon, having been washed and disinfected.

The vet passed Steve a bit of collar that was stuck in the dark brown one’s fur, and another piece in the black and white ones’. The dark brown one read **LUCAS** in bold, and for the black and white one, it said _Mike_ in italic.

“That’s what I’ll call you both. Lucas and Mike.” Steve said, smiling proudly. He had known these kittens for four hours, yet he had grown completely attached to them.

Yet the red one still had no name. She was a female, he had been informed. The kitten hissed when he got close, and scratched him when he tried to pick her up.

He sighed and let the expert put them in a cat carrier thingy and then he paid them extra.

He called a cab who allowed pets and rode home.

When at home, he let them out.

The reactions amused him.

Mike and the red one (who he hadn’t thought of a name yet) looked around warily, but with interest, tapping things with their paws, Lucas immediately went scratching up his curtains, and Dustin never strayed far from him, mewing affectionately and rubbing his head against Steve’s leg.

“Right, I’m going to order some cat food, if that’s possible.” He wondered aloud. “Maybe I can give you something while we wait for it to come…”

He looked it up and ended up feeding them all sardines. Dustin, Mike and Lucas all came immediately at the sound of the can opening, but the red-headed (he called her “Red” in his head, a temporary name) kitten didn’t come for a while, and only came when Lucas mewed at her to come.

Red was starting to worry Steve. She always scampered whenever he came in a room, and hid under his bed a lot.

He looked up how to tame a hurt cat and eventually came across _‘How to communicate with an abused cat.’_ The idea that anyone could hurt a little kitten made him nauseous, but he read the article.

Over the next week, he was determined to establish an at least _okay_ relationship with Red.

Red explored slightly, and he watched her with security cameras (oh yeah, did he mention he was rich?). She usually either did it alone or with Lucas or the other kittens.

He got her her own bowl and set it apart from where the other ones would eat, where he would place multiple sardines in. At first, Lucas started eating them, and Steve was about to shoo him off before he realized Lucas was getting Red to eat the food, since if Lucas did something, Red was likely to follow.

It worked, and soon enough, Red was the only one eating from her bowl. She watched him place the sardines and looked at him warily before eating. He bought a few machine-things that let off good smells and Red, in turn, relaxed.

And at the end of the week, he hit a milestone.

He was sitting cross-legged on the floor, petting Dustin who was purring in his lap. Dustin’s ears suddenly pricked up and he opened his blue eyes to look over at something. Steve looked up and saw Red standing, tail stuff, about a meter or so away from him, her pupils dilated.

He sat absolutely still, not even daring to breathe. Dustin mewed at Red happily, inviting her over. She hesitantly took a step forwards, and another, before sitting still, her eyes trained on him. Steve avoided eye contact and looked towards Dustin, who was still meowing at Red.

Red stood there for about 5 more minutes before Mike or Lucas meowed from another room and she walked away.

Steve let out a sigh, then began to pet Dustin between the ears. “That was a start, huh, buddy?”

Dustin purred in response.

After that little encounter, Steve started to see a lot of firsts. After eating, Red would stay instead of scampering away, jumping up on kitchen surfaces, ending up on the fridge.

Steve read another thing online and before setting the sardines on the floor, he lay down and put treats by his arm. Red stalked towards him, all the other cats being busy (either tearing up curtains or knocking down glasses, choose your pick) then ate them up.

After the sardines he had the biggest revelation yet.

Max purred against his leg, rubbing herself against his jeans. She looked up at him and mewed. Steve bent down and put a finger on her head, holding his breath.

She allowed him to pet her between the ears, and that was the happiest he was.

Later that day, Red curled up in his lap, purring contentedly. Dustin and Lucas were on either side of his computer. Dustin was looking at Max slightly irritably, probably cause she was stealing his favorite napping place, but he didn’t do or say anything. Mike was scratching his chair leg and Steve looked up girl names.

He saw one, and it just seemed _right_.

“Max. You’re Max.” he said thoughtfully. Lucas meowed as if he approved of that name and promptly jumped off the table and on his bed. The others followed suite, but Max stayed in his lap, purring.

It was the first time he had seen her not go wherever Lucas went.

“Good girl.”


End file.
